Julius Baer won the Outstanding Global Private Bank: Global category at the Private Banker International (PBI) Global Wealth Awards 2022 for its financial results, various regional initiatives, ESG and enhanced capabilities in private markets, wealth financing and real estate, among many other initiatives.
Full year adjusted net profits exceeded CHF1 billion Swiss Francs (US$1.02bn) for the first-time last year at Julius Baer. The wealth management (WM) group, which is headquartered in Zurich dating back to the 19th century, and has since spread around Europe and the globe with a presence in 25 countries via 60 offices in locations such as Singapore, Dubai, Shanghai, Mumbai, Sao Paulo and so on, has not rested on its laurels however, posting an impressive CHF428 billion (US$437bn) in Assets under Management (AuM) at the end of June 2022 and advancing the alignment of its digitalisation efforts with its strong personal advisory ties.
This is remarkable as it has to meet near- and long-term global challenges and opportunities, such as war in Ukraine, rising interest rates, oil, and commodity price spikes, Covid lockdowns in China, and the climate change-driven environmental, social, and governance (ESG) agenda. The market correction in H1 2022 were driven by the aforementioned near-term factors and had a deep impact on asset valuation and client sentiment, requiring close collaboration with clients to help navigate the difficult environment.
The Group focuses on its selected key markets for growth globally, such as Germany, Switzerland, and Brazil where it has a new advisory office in Sao Paulo, and Spain and Portugal where a newly strengthened Iberian Intermediaries team in Madrid has been supplanted by a senior manager transferring from Switzerland to Spain.
Middle east, as evidenced by new premises in its Dubai hub and the appointment of Rahul Malhotra there to head up its Non-Resident Indians (NRI) wealth management efforts. Further, Asian growth is also a key regional aim. A considerable part of net new money inflows last year came from Asian clients, with Singapore now Julius Baer’s second biggest global location hosting 1200 employees. Two new Group Heads have been appointed to the Singapore hub and new relationship managers (RMs) are being recruited for there and indeed for the targeted top markets globally to buttress growth efforts, alongside the rollout of multichannel digital tools.
Julius Baer is a keen ESG advocate as it wishes to offer its clients investment options they might be interested in that are reflective of global trends. Internally it wants to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions as a company by 2030 and for its treasury, mortgage, and corporate credit portfolio by 2050. It has also just introduced:
A proprietary ESG methodology to classify client investments
& ESG reports that clients will automatically receive, now that RMs have been trained on their usage.
Sustainability is a key aspect of Julius Baer’s ESG plans and its wider 2023-25 and longer-term strategy. The firm has achieved a 45% increase in client assets in sustainable discretionary mandates to close at CHF4 billion (US$4.1bn) in 2021. It has launched several new products and solutions in this area and instituted a Sustainability Circle community. This brings clients together enabling them to co-create content. The number of Philanthropy Advisory Mandates doubled last year as well.
Many more initiatives in this area to broaden the range of capabilities are in the pipeline. Julius Baer is well set to benefit from developments and opportunities in the future.